When preparing for travel abroad, it’s almost a no-brainer nowadays to find a travel guide to help you plan your trip and find the hidden gems your destination has to offer. Getting some tips on culture and language (if applicable) is certainly a plus, too.

The competition for creating “the” travel guide has certainly heated up as well. As the Internet gets larger the world gets smaller, and it seems that many more people are traveling to The Land of Smiles for an exotic getaway. As more and more travel guides get created, finding the right one becomes more of a challenge.

Well, I’m here to help. I’ve been grabbing up all of the Thailand travel guides I can find, and I plan on reviewing them all to help you cut through the clutter. The first one I’m reviewing is the Insight Guides Thailand travel book. This is a big book as far as travel guides is concerned. Just over 400 pages of information with glossy pages and color photographs, the authors definitely did not skimp on content. The guide starts off with some generalized information about Thailand: history, culture, religion, the arts, weather, cuisine, etc., and it was then – only about 30 pages in – when the bad taste in my mouth started…
Read more…

Industry-leaders Paiboon Publishing have teamed up with Word in the Hand, Inc. to create a software version of their highly-popular Thai-English English-Thai dictionary. It seemed only a matter of time before Paiboon would embrace the demand for Thai learning software applications and create a software dictionary.

I got a chance to put the dictionary through its paces. Though I didn’t have a specific set of criteria from which to judge whether or not it was a good product, I did use it during my normal study sessions to see how well it worked in a “real life” situation. Let’s take a quick tour of the dictionary’s features and see how well it works.

Read more…

I finally finished compiling the last two volumes in the Manee series, so now all volumes from Grades 1-6 are now up on the Downloads page and available for you to use.

Thanks to everyone for your patience while I figured out exactly what was missing.

Now back to our regularly-scheduled program…

Every day, a new Manee book seems to appear! Grades 5 and 6 (Volumes 1 only; Volumes 2 for each are on the way) have just been added to the Downloads page.

The kind folks at Lanna Innovation sent me their latest product – Thai Consonant Flashcards to take a look at and comment on. In the Thai language-learning community there is plenty of room for new product growth. The problem is that the major players have such a firm grasp on the market in terms of what books you must have to learn, it can be difficult to break through with a new product and set yourself apart from the pack. (I have some product ideas in development as well, so I know this problem all too well.)

So the question is, can a company with a new product break through and make a mark in the learning community? More to the point, does the Learn Thai consonants flash cards set have what it takes to get added to the list? Let’s find out…
Read more…

So here we are, three months into 2010, and I’m finally getting back on a regular posting schedule. In case you were wondering, I’ve spent the past few months working on another blog about guitars – Fretterverse.com. While my Thai learning is more of a labor of love, Fretterverse is both a labor of love and a labor of trying to get out of the 9-5 grind. (On a side note: if you are a guitar lover, please stop by the Fretterverse and have a look around. The more, the merrier.)

While blogging about guitars is definitely taking up the majority of my blogging time, I still do love learning (and blogging) about Thai language and culture, and I do not want to stop blogging. However, I won’t be able to do both every day, and therefore certain concessions have to be made. With that in mind, I’ve decided to cut back on the LTMS posting to once or twice a week. That will give me time to dedicate to both blogs, but it will also give me time to digest what I’m learning before just spitting it back out on the blog.

Read more…

A friend was gracious enough to send me the Grade 4 volumes in the Manee series. Honestly, I didn’t even know there was a Grade 4 – I thought they only went up to Grade 3. Anyway, they are available on the downloads page if you would like to grab them.